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Big Bad Voodoo 1,340

I read once that Persian Gulf wasnt sea at all once. Then that when sea level rise and with help of what is now dry shadow river in Saudi Arabia, caused floods in Persian Gulf. Some say that river cause floods in Sumer (Hint-Ur)

RedSquirrel 704

The company that took the image is DigitalGlobe they submitted it through Getty images. I have yet to find anything on what caused the grid pattern, some are supposing that it's an overlay from a sonar scan over the image, but something seems mildly fishy to me on that.

They submitted it to a top image vote on Facebook (Citation: HERE). No explanation from them. I'll send a message on FB and see if they have an explanation.

Google Earth, in its latest bathymetry update, has removed a gridlike pattern that appeared in the previous version of its Google Ocean program. The pattern had sparked rumors that the legendary underwater city of Atlantis had been discovered.

When in 2009, Google Earth users noticed a large gridlike pattern in Google Ocean's bathymetry imagery of the seafloor that looked like the layout of a great underwater city, rumors spread quickly online that Atlantis had been found. But Google reacted, saying the pattern was not Atlantis but overlapping datasets. According to Fox News, the gridlike structure is a data artifact from the sonar method oceanographers use to map the seafloor. But because the gridlike pattern could not be immediately removed, it remained there for those who wished to believe it was the layout of the city of Atlantis to study.

Unusual grid patterns seen on maps of the ocean floor are created by ships taking higher-resolution sonar readings — to create better maps

When you see strange grid-like formations on the seafloor while using an online mapping tool, what you are really seeing is two (or more) different maps layered on top of each other. One map may show a large, low-resolution picture of the ocean floor. This map will show little detail and will look smooth. The other map, or 'data set,' often looks like a bunch of grid-like lines overlaying the smooth, low-detail map. The path of the lines show the paths traveled by the ships that gathered these higher-resolution sonar readings of smaller patches of the ocean.

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lilthor 137

Google Earth, in its latest bathymetry update, has removed a gridlike pattern that appeared in the previous version of its Google Ocean program. The pattern had sparked rumors that the legendary underwater city of Atlantis had been discovered.

When in 2009, Google Earth users noticed a large gridlike pattern in Google Ocean's bathymetry imagery of the seafloor that looked like the layout of a great underwater city, rumors spread quickly online that Atlantis had been found. But Google reacted, saying the pattern was not Atlantis but overlapping datasets. According to Fox News, the gridlike structure is a data artifact from the sonar method oceanographers use to map the seafloor. But because the gridlike pattern could not be immediately removed, it remained there for those who wished to believe it was the layout of the city of Atlantis to study.

Unusual grid patterns seen on maps of the ocean floor are created by ships taking higher-resolution sonar readings — to create better maps

When you see strange grid-like formations on the seafloor while using an online mapping tool, what you are really seeing is two (or more) different maps layered on top of each other. One map may show a large, low-resolution picture of the ocean floor. This map will show little detail and will look smooth. The other map, or 'data set,' often looks like a bunch of grid-like lines overlaying the smooth, low-detail map. The path of the lines show the paths traveled by the ships that gathered these higher-resolution sonar readings of smaller patches of the ocean.

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nothingbettertodo 0

US fifth fleet is home ported just a few km's to the north in Manama Harbour. Iran I believe has submarines based a few hundred km's to the East in Bandar Abbas. I would imagine the US Navy would like to avoid another Pearl Harbour. I would guess it is a shallow trenched hydrophone array to monitor the water column for the approaches to the harbour. Being set up as a grid a sensor array could vector a target quickly... Just a guess though

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DieChecker 17,542

I've seen threads like this before. I was expecting something different then the photo in the OP. Usually lines under the sea are drag marks from anchors or fishing activities, but this appears to be too squared off for that. It does really appear to be a artifact of the original photo. Probably the photo was not cleaned up good enough to start with.

Shows up on Google Maps too, not just Google Earth. Might be the same base photo though.

Appears to be a sand bank or coral reef just off the eastern shore of Bahrain island in the Persian Gulf.

Since the water is fairly shallow, I'd guess that this could not go undetected by the almost million and a half people living in Bahrain. The feature (reef) appears to be about 12 miles or 20km long. So the lines would be roughly a mile across. None of the OP pic is above water.